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January 7, 2011

Lego building challenges

As I mentioned in Christmas Lego, I’ve been trying to encourage B to build his own creations with Lego. To help with this, I have created a list of building challenges to get him started …

build a car
build something very tall
build something with a window
build a bridge
build a house
build a boat
build a piece of furniture – a chair, a bed
build a cube
build something symmetrical
build a maze
build a pyramid
build a tree
build flowers
build an insect
make a pattern
build something with only 20 Lego bricks
build an animal
build a sea creature
build a snake
build the first letter of your name
write your name in Lego
build a house for a toy animal of your choice

At the moment. I am just suggesting things from this list for him to build when we get out the Lego, but I may write each challenge on a paddlepop stick and let him draw a stick each time. Some other things that help when he is stuck are

selecting the pieces he should use for the challenge (ie. limiting his choices)

building alongside him in a friendly competition

If you want some other ideas or a place to start with Lego building you could try these Lego building instructions. I have printed some of these instructions out and put them in plastic sleeves to create a Lego building book.
There is also a blog, Lego Quest, that posts regular Lego building challenges. Some past challenges that are suitable for my son’s age (5 y.o) are …

build something using only one colour of Lego
try to reproduce an ancient monument
create a flag design
create a marine vessel that floats
create a playground

How does your child like to build with Lego? Do they like to follow instructions for make it up as they go along?

8 comments:

My 6 yo is a Lego fanatic! When he first started, he would only build according to the directions. But he's slowly branching out to make creations of his own choosing. Mostly he likes to create different vehicles (the kind you'd never find in real life). Thanks for the info on the Lego blog!

Mine like to make it up as they go along and like to mix the lego in with other small world items (they're using lego to build bridges over their train track today.) We had fun measuring with lego too http://nurturestore.co.uk/measuring-with-lego

Excellent post. My siz year old daughter and seven year old son each have their own box of Lego. They've spent the weekend creating a Lego town. I was really proud of my daughter as she sat and followed the instructions to build a post van. My son is 18ths older and can follow the diagrams but it was the first time for her.

I always try to laminate the instructions from the little sets so they can be build over and over again.